ahead, what do you expect tomorrow morning? >> still some lingering rain and gusty winds. aroundas it has been you what is show l happening up around new

york city. see those spiral bands coming into long island? kind of thing never deal with. the rainfall is about 10-inches. rutherford, new jersey. wind gusting to 52 miles an hour. were up to 75inds hour.an is a once-in-a-lifetime many of us around here. a devastating storm, as we have heard. .ahead days >> i expect you and your will learn a lot from has gone through here. >> coming up and making that turn, and modern meteorology, 50 or 60 years ago we could not have predicted that. it is the equivalent to some of the great hurricanes and disasters. was the worst case scenario

for new york city. >> it could have been a lot wo

tonight on a special edition of "nightline." landfall. sandy, the biggest atlantic stm in a decade slams into the eastern united states, whipping of winds of nearly 100 miles an hour and 30-foot wave and some 60-some million americanin its path and we're live as the superstorm 1,000 mes wides atla the island of manhattan,n, cut off, under water and in the dark. and warning that the worst is not over. nine governors d declare statesf emergency as the megastorm hurtles north and rescuers

search for survivors of theall ship gone down. and good evening. cynthia mk city and tonight we're in the midst of deadly storm unlike any this city has seen before. for the first time since 9/11, all bridges and tunnels leading in and out of the city are closed down, and this is what manhattan looks like tonight. eerily dark and quiet as this massive superstorm has left hav

atlantic seaboard from the carolinas to connecticut, claiming at least ten lives so far. flooding entire towns, causing blackouts across the midatlantic and midwest and snoerms frwstor maryla to tennessee. juju chahang spent t the day in lower manhattan and comomes t u from the dangerously flooded streetings. >> rorter: we've sent much of this evening wading through the fldwaters ofmanhattan, rough the evacucuation zozone, this storm now has the dubious distinction of setting a record for a record storm surge but it's deceptively calm no notot lot of rain wi, penn historic canyons of lower man hasn't and the 9/11 memorial

began flooding this evening. behind me is litallyly the financial hea of the stage, new york stock exchange shut down today and tomorrow. detectly bind me is what new rk oicials feared,, tonight a ge swath ofower manhattan is under water and without power. storm surgeses of up to 11 feet battering the southern tip of this island. streets and avenues turning to rivers as the water surroundidi manhattan poured over seawalls and the full moon high tide. we were with new york governor cuomo as he watched the water surge at the mouth of one tunnel at the heighof the storm. what is your biggestst concern this hour? >> where it stops, that's the question, where it s stops and when it stops. and what damage it's doing in the meantime. >> reporter: water flooded the newly opened 9/11 memorial and a facade of a building came

toppling down, exposing apartment inside, miraculously leave no one injured. all bridges and tunnels were closed. wereurricane fce winds coming ashore, officials were so concerned about 90-mile-an-hour gusts of wind that they shout down the historic brooklyn bridge as well as just about every bridge and tunnel into manhtan. remember, we're on an island we're essentially cut off as the storm hits. across the river the waterfront had been flooding since morning in brooklyn and jerersey city. the subways and b buses normall moving 7 million people a day stopd running last night. people encouraged to stay in place. now, though, subways are submergeged in four feet of wat. we were with the chairman of mta wh one of theidal surs they were warng about happened. >> what surprises me is the power of the water. it's unbelievably flowing. i'm a new yorker, i've never seen anything ke this into a tunnel. >> reporter: power was cut in

the brook llyn battery tunnel. our satellite truck was stranded and we had to make our way through the water any way we could. we can hang on to the fence. it's flooded here. offshore laerd liberty's torch has been extingished as power outages spread across town, a smalall explosion hitting a cond son plant. 375,000 people who live in the evacuation zones and low-lying areas prone to flooding, deep in the heart of the zone we ran across stubborn holdouts who decided toide ouout the storm. the hurricane was on tv and beer on tap. >>appy hurrrricane!e! >> reporter: three friends all zonene a residents were hunkeri to down. what's the plan? >> we're on the third floor and plenty of provisions. >> reporter: what are the provisions? >> let's see. we have -- what did we get?

tune th tuna, peanut butter, wheat bread. >> reporter: where is a once in a lifetime stormrm. >> as much as this is bad, for like a lot of reasons, it's like makes humanity ststop and have o nothing. >> reporter: a few blocks aw st their 18-month-old son. what played into your decision to stay here instead of evacuating? you're in a mandatory evacuate site. >> yes, wewe are, we're taking this seriously and we're prepepared.. that's halthe battle is being prepared. >> reporter: they stockpiled the fridge and filled the tub with water. you lived through quite a bit in >> blackout, flood o of the building, living through the reconstruction of after 9/11.

it's been a tough road. >> reporter: out their road the footprints where the world trade center once stood and now the construction site for the freedom tower. now flooded. wh is your biggest fear? >> that we have two very large cranes on the north side of our building that if something were to c come unhinged a crane woul collapse into the building. >> reporter: he's right to be concerned about that crane. in midtown this afternoon high above luxury building a construction crane toppled over in the high winds. threatening pedestrians below. >> i heard thihis could come do, i thought i would check it out. >> reporter: a nearby high-end hotel evacuated their guests. >> watch your backs, folks. >> reporr: that crane dgles in fierce winds and the bradshaws have lost power. they say it will be a long couple of day >> we are just about literally minutes from high tide. but this is not good. this is not good. >> reporter: an understatement. >> yeah. >> reporter: and clearly it'ss

not looking goo for the bradshaws tonight. they have e told us via e-mail their lobby is four feet under water. you u have to understand when t power is cut off to a skyscraper, that particular building which had 400 units in it did not have backup generator, they don't haveve su pumps to pump out the floodwater rising. the 400 units, about half off them decided to stay in, so it's a long couple of days for the people trapped in n that blag b. we're penned in by floodwaters and yoyou saw the way we came i. i'm not sure how we'll get out tonight. >> oh, stay safe. we'll have some dc hospitals. ambulances are lining u up in front of nyu's mical c the hospital lost its backup generator. just now the first patients are coming out of the hospital the waitingbulances, including some infants.

d have word on whether the power outage caused any fatalities inside but of course we're there now and we'll bring you more as we know it. now we'll turn to new jersey and move to cape may, where my co-anchor terry mon, reporting powerful brunt of the storm's e landfall earlier today. what is the latest there? >> reporter: we are about 175 miles from you and we're still getting hurricane-force winds just booming, thundering off the block behind me. like million american w hunkered down as this storm roared ashore. herejust a few miles from where landfall was made, roads were flooded, t booming winds have been going for hours. power out all over the place and when we come back in just a minute, we will take you through

the course of the day as sandy comes ashore. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, i see a world bursting with oppchina,ties. brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 9 out of 10 large, professional invesrs choose ishares for their etfs.

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and welcome back to our special storm coverage. now breaking news out of new jersey. where the oyster creek nuclear power plant declared an alert due to flooding. they were offline due to fueling, not currently generating power. u.s. nuclear regulatory commission said this is the

second-lowest of four action levels and they anticipate the water levels wl begin to abate over the next few hours. we will of course keep you updated. there are eight nuclear facility notice storm region. but so far oyster creek is the only facility on alert. coastal new jersey has been hard-hit by the storm and we're going to return now to my co-anchor terry moran who joins us again from cape may. it is windy out ththere, terry. >> reporter: it certainly is, no question about it. let me give you an idea of what this storm has done all day. these winds, hurricane-force winds blowing for hours, since before the storm made landfall shortly afr 6:00 p.m. and they whip the sand, the droplets of rain intnto needle-sharp - that stic in people's faces. devastating event. more powerful storms, windier storms but this massive storm has just caused havoc across the

eastern n seaboard. here's how the day unfolded. sandy roared ashore thihis ev evening. the ocean is now flooding into the city. >> reporter: lashing out with fearsome winds and monstrous storm surge at communities up and down the coast forundreds of mile gigantic waves engulfed the coastline. everything away!t's washing >> reporter: in atlantic city, 15-foot wawaves crashed over th seawe seawall. in hatteras, the surf tore up roads and beaches. 70-mile-per-hour winds battered communities as millions of americans hunkered down under the fury of the stm. the drama began early this morning as the storm headed toward the eastern sthe maelstr incredit helicopter rescue at sea.

14 people pulled from the roiling waters of a the tal shatall ship "hms bounty" safrpg to the bottom of the sea, one crew member confirmed dead, another still missing. earlier today, in cape may, america's oldest seaside resort, sandy battered the grand homes, voured the broad beaches and flooded streets, particularly turning the cape into an island. but sandy's real destructive force is focused north of here in her huge haymaker of a root hook that deadly northeast quadrant of the storm. and the most densely populated area of the country. >> millions of people are going to be affected. >> reporter: but ontime in washington, d.c., president obama breakingng off from the camptook up the mantle of offense once again to urge americans to heed all the ominous warnings. >> the most important message that i have for the public righ

you need to evacuate. do not don't pause, don'tstion the instructions given. >> reporter: by spawned snowstorms in west vivirginia and flood warnings a far west as chicago. and tonight, ass we see the massive impact all along the east coast the sheer scale of the e storm is staggering, almo 3.7 million people are without power. more than 1.5 million ee vavace. 14,000 flight cancelations across the country. and from space tonight, the gigantic storm seems to have earned its halloween moniker, frankenstorm. from l land tonight, the moon peeked through the clouds at the eye of the storm. that was a while ago. there is no question the storm is roaring back and while hundreds of thousands of people

did evacuate a lot of people stayed, especially here in cape may. this is a seafaring town. theyey're tough, they've seen a lot of storms. they say they've seen tougher but this one is wreaking havoc up and down the atlantic seaboard. >> the governor wn't happy about that. he had a few choice words for those who chose to stay. >> reporter: they are hunkering down out here as they are those who stayed. cape hatteras -- cape mass has seen a lot of storms. they have held up pretty well, the buildings. >> stay safe. we'll check in with you later. just 48 milesp the shoreline from terry, ginger zee of our extreme weather team is on the ground in the hard-hit city of atlantic city where much of the city is under water. part of t that famous boardwalk has be blown way and iconic neon lights have gone totally

dark. >> rorter: the winds arengn the of this storm, if you can imagine that. we had a 66ile-per-hour gust earlier. i think we're easily outdoing this year. we'll get the official numbers coming in but i've got to tell you the entire day we're stuck here, there is water on both sides of us, most of thiss city is understood water anand just e of so many problems that this huge storm has brought, even more than it promised. the superstorm is a super disasterow morning. famous boardwdwalk into the just aew miles from rip from the top of the building, debris slamming into the ground just inches from a

news cameraman. oh, my there is stuff absolutely everywhere. you can see throughout the streets, rolling debris here. at the lights, one of the only lights we've seen on, beyond that, a lot of electricity already out. we met some people who decided to try their luck and ride out the storm. >> we've got our kids, snuggle in a ball and hope for the best. >> reporter: then bad news for people like them, governor chris christie announced no rescue services in atlantic city until tomorrow morning. >> i cannot in good conscience send them in the dark given all of the various hazards that would occur. >> reporter: he blasted the mayor for encouraging people to stay in shelters rather than moving inland. >> for those elected officials who decided to ignore my

admonition, it is your responsibility. >> reporter: the storm passed ferociously, at least 66-mile-per-hour wind gusts at the airport. then just a couple of hours ago, that strange moment when it all went quiet. when you're in the middle of the storm like this, it gets eerily calm. the light breeze tickling the trees. that is not normal. the onslaught reseumed and likey to keep pummelling the city tonight. we're not going to get a lot of rest here, we'll keep following the storm. at least the tide has gone down slightly. we'll watch that tide rise again into the morning hours. so the flooding and all of the conce concerns, they are not over. we'll head back cynthia. >> stay safe. you have been at it all day. a town under water,

last-minute ee vvacuees flee th homes waist deep in water. let's see if we can get one past the defense. hut! go! here it comes! right on the numbers! boom! get it! spin! oh, nice hands! chest bump. ugh! good job, man. nice! okay, halftime. now, this is my favorite play. oh! i'm wide open. oh, fumble. fumble. don't want to fumble any of these. [ male announcer ] share what you love, with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. it's up... and it's good! good?! they're grrreat!

look, the reason i'm in this race is there are people thatre really hurting today in this country. and we facece this deficit -- could crush the future generations. and republicans and democrats both love america but we need to have leadership -- leadership in washington that will actually bring people together and get the job done and could not care less if it's a republican or democrat. i've done it before, i'll do it again. i'm mitt romney, and i appro vethis message. our special storm coverage continues now as sandy hits community as cross the eastern seaboard, in queens a fire tore

through this block in far rockaway aseaside community, as refighters rushed to rescue people, scaling buildings to bring them to higr ground the fire spread across rooftops and on new york's long island tonight, thousands of people are without power. many of their homes are taking on water as the storm whipped dozens of miles of vulnerable beachfront property. they are used to northeasters this time of year but nothing like this megacoastal storm. ron claiborne in longbeach, new york in a midst of a blackout. he joins us s by phone. n, what is the latest? >> reporter: authorities in nassau county reporting hunundrs of people trapped inside their homes, narw barrier, low-lying barrier island near ken dart in new york city. floodwaters recreeding but some berms, sd berms thahat were reekted along the southth shore here intended to slow or prevent

waters from going into long beach, they dissolved under the pounding surf an the rising tide, floodwaters expected to ach eight feet h high here in long beach, hearing reports of people stuck in their homes where the water came in from the north on the bay between here and main part of long island. and from the ocean. there is also a report, according nassau county authorities of at least onene fatality here on long island. that is the latest from lon island, just outside of new york city here tonight. >> thank you to ron in the middle of a blackout. next up, historic rescue in the raging sea. a capsized ship and the helicopter pilot battling 50-mile-per-hour winds to save those aboard. let's see if we can get one past the defense. hut! go! here it comes! rig on the numbers! boom! get it! spin!

oh, nice hands! chest bump. ugh! good job, man. nice! okay, halftime. now, this is my favorite play. oh! i'm wide open. oh, fumble. fumble. don't want to fumble any y of these. [ male announcer ] share what you love, with who you love. kellogg's frosted flakes. it's up... and it's good! good?! they're grea follow the wings. i'm a conservative investor.v.

i turned 65 last week. i'ning a life. e risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. versification. s. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. choose ishares for their etfs. inoducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. tax efficient d low cost building blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. ca your advisor. visit ishares.com. ishares. yeah, ishares. call 1-800-ishares for a prosctus ishares by blackrock.. which includes investstment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.

and this is maryland. teacher: this is west virginia, pennsylvania, delaware. every year marylanders spend five hundred and fifty million gaming at casinos in these other states. question seven will build a new casino and bring

table games to baltimore... generating hundreds of millions for schools. and that money has to go to education. it's the law. so vote for question seven. so we can stop spending all that money here, and keep maryland money in classrooms like mine. welcome back to this special hourlong edition. i'm cynthia mcfadden at abc news headquarters in new york ty live coverage of the superstorm battering the east coast.

jimmy kimmel will begin in another half hour. the e storm lashing the seaboard amid gale winds and giant storm waves and incredible drama played out on the open sea today. it was ahightas lipt replica a 200-year-oldhip sailed straight in the wrath of the storm off the coast of the carolinas after a grave who thought it would b safer at sea than in port. abc's matt gut man has the story from elizabeth city, north carolina. >> reporter: its final journey began last week as it headed toward its winter port in st. petersburg. the majestic three-masted tall ship made its debut in "mutiny on the bounty" and ready for its closeueup in "pirates of the caribbean "and used as a training ship. this is what it looks like when

it's buffeted by rough waters. but even before it left port in connecticut, the bounty changed its crse abc news learnened. the captain tacked east hoping to avoid the brunt of hurricane sa ndy, the captain facebooked his reasoning. saying "a ship is safert sea than at port." but 20-plus waves and galee fore winds battered the ship causing it to lose power. the update on facebook "bleak." the crew abandoned ship. the crew got the sos call at midnight but itould take hours to muster a rescue pehelicopter. it took seven e hours for the chper to get to the sea due to the high winds. they found the "bounty" crew 100 miles offshore, bobbing like human corks, waves topping 20 feet.. in this raft, you sea their faces peeking out. with the cho batring

>> i jumped in, i heard you needed a road. > reporter: towed themm thro the wavaves to the basket lower from the chopper. survivors hoisted one at a time. >> this isis swinging really ba. >> i was tired aftfter sixnd then we went straight over to the next life raft that had flee more people. >> reporter: 1 14 people total plucked from the mountainous waves and two-hour flight back to land. >> as we left the scene, some started to get emotional, realizing that they had left shipmate bind and that we were stitill looking for them. >> reporter: two sailors were ma missing, including the captain. the e chopper headed back. it was not the only ship caught in the perfect storm. five cruise ships ensnared in

the violent wind and waves. they were seeking safe harbor. passengers on the disney fantasy tossed around, water sloshing over the decks, storms slamming, ter ti terrified passengers told to stay in theirrooms. david and esthe with neaearn end of an idyllic caribbean cruise when they got stuck in the e orm. >> doors began to slalam shut a open. >> reporter: they captured the ordeal on videotape, outside 12th floor window, rough seas. inside their cabin, tototal cha. >> i opened the doorr to the rom and a mother was coming down the hall crying and hystericalhyste room is in shambles, i think is the way she put it. i went around theorner and some glass dhoors opened into enter into a pool area, the glass was shattered. d th washe most traumatic

part. >> reporter: the ship did mage dock safely in florida, to compensate guests for the wild de, ey were given a 25% discount on their next cruisese. we felt the powerf those waves this morning. sandy nearly 300 miles away from our locaon in north carolina's's outer banks, but teachero teacherous. we were setting up onn a dune, e thought out of hars way.y. our producer swept off her feet, the waves engulfing us. we we bothet but okay. maritime safety expts tolold us that cruise ships s should b large enough to safely navigate the heavy swells of a srm like sandy but when a 7,500 ton cruise liner w battered b hey storms, it sank, capsizing with into sight of sh >> our thanks to matt gutman, not a day to be on the ocean. we turn to dan harris in connecticut, right now a double

whammy of a high tide t and powerfulul storm sururge is cau levels and fast. dan? from stamamford, connecticut.u we're at theoment of truth here. high t tide in new york city wa at roughly 9:00 eastern, here in southern connecticut, right about now. as we said, the moment of uth. let me show you someththing, th houses, long island sound d 've been watchg ththe water lapping up at the houses all day. as you look at these pictures, let me give you some good news and then some not-so-good news. good news, interestingly, wer has gone down over the past hour or so becau the storm surge reallylyit seral hoursrs agot the same t time that it was hitting manhattan. and that is apparently stronong was apparently stronger than the force of this high tide. so, th is some good news, t water goin down. the not-t-so-good, unnerving ws, is that the governor here heldda

news conference a short while d says are marne in their homes thousands of and stark likely rescue you tonig. your only choice is to go to the highest level in your house and try to ride it out. he said d not, very specificc and ststark terms, do not try t wade through the water or swim through the war. you will be putting your own life at risk. basically he told these people, as i said, just try to ride this thing out. and as we said at the top of the discussion, moment of truth here in connecticutthe governor predicting we'll see a catastrophe the likes of which this state has never seen before and we'll know more in the morn wheth sun comes up and reveals a perhrhaps unfamiliar and unpleasant landscape here.

>> thank you for that. let's hope the governor is wrong. some parts of new england seemed to have escaped the worst the storm and even though residents braced for the worst the governor of massachusetts says most of that state was spared but many of the southern coastal towns still felt sandy's wrath. including westport where abc's john schifrin j joins us w with more. >> reporter: good evening. the good news is that high tide passed and water levels have gone back down into the ocean, you can see it's stillll chued by sandy.. now, earlier toda we saw storm gusts, winds up to 85 miles per hour, just a few hours ago this area was c completely flooded b six-x-foot stormurge that came crashing down over the ocean. now, to give you an idea how powerful this storm was, where we're anding right now used t to be a completely clear road. it is now covered by inch wes o sand and huge 20-pound rocksatw

ocean. now, a lot of the residents here decided to evacuate here on the beachfront but if you look off in the distance, some blocks, and decided to stay and in this hour they have the power on right now. sin th >> thanks to john schifrin. midwest braces for sandy's impact and bill weir comes to us from a wind-whipped lake erie. [ male announcer ] this is the age of knowing what you're made of. why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away

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and om to our special storm verage. we've just confirmed tonight that the storm surge is storm beginning to recede here in new york city, good news. for the latest overview of what is happening, we have meteorologist jeff smith from our new york local affiliate wabc. good evening. >> reporter: good evening. just a devastating storm in the new york city area. we had record storm surges, some places had water levels that they haven't seen in over 200 years, including hoboken, new jersey, the battery in lower manhattan. water several feet above where the water went during irene last summer and that is flooding the subways. that is a multibillion dollar disaster in itself. incredible storm. a lot of people here talk about the hurricane of 1938, a benchmark that hit long island

in '38. this storm had pressure or intensity at that level, same league as one of the hurricanes in american history and it moved in a path that was so rare, it moved out to sea and then it backed into the coast and moving off to the west right now and the track, future track will take it into parts of pennsylvania and not only storm surge by winds over 90 miles per hour. we had fatalities in the new york city area because of trees falling on cars. we had a firefighter who died when a tree fell on a fire truck in this area. just an incredible storm and look at the path. it's going to move through buffalo, pittsburgh, very high winds in those areas. even blizzard warnings for part was west virginia higher elevations expecting one to two feet of snow. it's all about the great lakes getting the wind. erie, michigan in particular

with the long fetch coming down the lake could have to 20 to 25-foot waves crashing into chicago and gary, indiana. a storm we haven't seen the likes of in recorded weather history and this part of the country, in the northeastern part of the country, both in terms of the expanse and intensity. >> thank you, jeff, well-pred t well-predicted. we knew it would hit but didn't know quite so hard. the evacuation in manhattan, the effect of the blackouts taking a steep toll at nyu hospital. the backup generators failed after the power wnt out, forcing evacuations of patients including infants. we're joined by our affiliate wabc's kimberly richardson at the scene at the hospital. what can you tell us, kimberry? i think we have lost the connection but we are going to try to reestablish that for you.

meanwhile, we're going to, while the east coast is getting pounded by sandy tonight, she's making her way inland as we heard jeff tell us, toward the midwest where it promises to wreak even more havoc in the days to come where my co-anchor bill weir is live in erie, pennsylvania. tonight the storm is whipping up there. what can you tell us? >> reporter: this is unbelievable, of course, we're so used to doing this on the atlantic or on the gulf of mexico but here it is, my first freshwater hurricane. this is lake erie tonight. we are in erie, pennsylvania, midway between cleveland to the west and of course, buffalo to the east. they are recording wind speeds up to 65 miles an hour as far west as cleveland tonight. as jeff was saying, 20 to 25-foot waves in the great lakes, including lake michigan and of course, we've seen this down south, the hardy surfers

who try to catch a few of the tasty waves and they are doing that in lake erie today, surfing the great lakes. we heard about it in southern california, today it was true. but this is a serious, deadly storm here. this far west, as it is along the coast. already 150,000 people without power in ohio, hundreds of thousands in pennsylvania as well. hundreds of flights cancelled from chicago o'hare to detroit, all throughout the midwest. halloween postponed, schools closed, whoa! as things calm down back east, now the midwest braces for the wrath of sandy. unbelievable. >> stay safe out there. looks like quite a storm. of course, the middle of the country is also home to many of the critical swing states and next week's presidential election and with on the seven days to go before voting day this storm is just about the

only thing that could slow down a race this tight. both candidates have put their official campaign events on hold while the storm rages. abc's jake tapper reports from the suddenly quiet campaign trail. >> reporter: good evening. president obama was supposed to hold a rally here in orlando, florida, but hurricane sandy made other plans for him. president obama pulled candidate obama off the campaign trail today, pulling a no-show at his own orlando, florida, rally to race back to the white house to monitor the hurricane. >> this is going to be a big and powerful storm. in the wake of harsh criticism of the president flying to a rally in vegas the day after the benghazi libya diplomatic post was tacked the president took no chances today. the white house release two photographs of the president being briefed on the hurricane and he came out to the briefing room to warn americans to heed their local and state officials and to underline what is truly important. >> i am not worried at this

point about the election, i'm worried about the impat on families and impact on our first responders, the election will take care of itself next week. >> reporter: no doubt the election is being impacted by the storm. both candidates planned to spend the final days of the election crisscrossing battleground states and instead, they are now laying low. their campaigns cancel a combined 30 events since saturday. the one in orlando and another one youngstown went on without the headliner. form eer president clinton and vice president biden praised the decision. >> he said i got to go back right now, the storm is getting out of hand, i got to handle it and i said mr. president, that is the right call. >> reporter: romney squeezed in rallies in av on lake, ohio and davenport, iowa before pressing pause on his campaign.

>> hopefully you're though thes and prayers will join with mine for people in harm's way. we love our fellow americans. we wish them well. >> reporter: this is already by some measures the closest election since modern polling began in 1936 with the canada dades averaging 38% to 48% tie since september. and into this perfect storm of an election comes this storm, slicing a path through battleground states, north carolina, virginia, ohio and new hampshire, potentially impacting early voting. and who knows where the recovery from the storm will be one week from tomorrow. thus, the candidates are trying to project leadership. >> speaking today with the national weather service and folks at fema as they prepare for the the landfall of a very dangerous hurricane. >> reporter: tougher task perhaps for the candidate who doesn't run the federal government. now with president obama in washington, d.c., you may wonder why i and the rest of the press corps are in orlando, florida,

the bottom line is it wasn't safe for our press charter to fly back to washington. we're not exactly air force one so we're sitting here waiting for president obama to decide when he's going to resume his time on the campaign trail and we'll catch up with him there. >> thanks to you, jake tapper. at least it's not raining. "good morning america" will have all of the latest storm updates in the morning. we're always online at abcnews.com. stay safe, america. jimmy kim el is next.

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♪ it's "jimmy kimmel live" [ cheers and applause ] > jimmy: thank yoyou, thank y that very nice. thanyou. i'm jimmy, i i'm the host of th show. ththank yoyou for watching, tha you for being here tonight. i just -- i have to say something, i just put a little purel on my hands so i as fresh clean as i canan possibly be. it rained today here, which think -- i thi it'the firs time it everappened, right? [ lahter ] i know isoundsds dumb but i actually went outside to look at the rain, it hasn't rained in so lo. it looked wet. it's good. need the rain i isouthern cafornia t to water our medidic marijuana plplants the other nice thing is, when